MASTERCLASS
Grahame’s materials
•Watercolours
Cobalt Blue, French
Ultramarine, Winsor Blue
(Green Shade), Burnt Sienna,
Quinacridone Magenta,
Winsor Red, Quinacridone
Gold, Cadmium Yellow, all
Winsor&NewtonProfessional
Water Colour
•Brushes
A1”washbrush,asize10
sable,asize6round,anold
size 8 sable (for lifting out)
•Paper
Millford 300gsm (140lb) NOT
•2B pencil2 Place a first wash
After my initial pencil sketch, I wash over
the entire paper using my wash brush with a
varied but continuous wash. The only place
where I have deliberately left a hard edge is
at the right of the clock tower dome – this is
to separate it from the sky. I dabbed random
colours in the lower area to indicate the
fi gures, but these were still done as part
of a single, continuous wash.MASTERCLASSSimplifying
scenes
GRAHAME BOOTH shows you why
a strong sense of perspective is
required to turn a bustling scene
into a smart, focused watercolourhe Ghanta Ghar (or
‘clock tower’) is a heritage
landmark in the centre
Udaipur, India, and the busy
cing street provides a useful
xercise in both perspective and
mplifi cation. Indian cities are
ustling, energetic places full of
movement and colour and, while
have tried to capture this, what
eally attracted me to this
particular subject was the
electrical cables seemingly
festooned in all directions.
One problem with tackling
this type of subject is that
there is so much going on.
With such a selection of strong
points of interest I wanted toavoid drawing too much attention
to just one and so I was careful
not to isolate any of the strong
features. I used extensive
softening of edges to allow one
element to blend with the next.
As for perspective, although
I was aware where the vanishing
point was (just to the left of the
painting, on the eye-level line
linking the heads) I didn’t want
it to be too perfectly defi ned as I
would lose the relaxed feel of the
subject. In the event, I checked
the lines of the building in the
fi nal stages and fi xed a line that
was just a little bit too inaccurate.
Can you spot the repair?
http://www.grahamebooth.com1 Sketch and simplify
I drew this pencil sketch fairly
quickly without too much detail.
If too much attention is paid to
the pencil work, there is a danger
of “colouring in”. I have greatly
simplifi ed the original subject –
there were too many motorbikes for
my liking and the fi gures will change.
For a symmetrical structure such
as the clock tower, it is helpful to
draw a light, central line to avoid a
tendency for the structure to lean.
Another vital thing to identify is
the eye level. In a street scene
where there are no hills, you will see
that the heads are more or less on
the same horizontal line (allowing
for differences in height). In a street
with parallel sides, the horizontal
lines that are directed into the
subject will meet at a single point
on eye level.